


I Didn't Start the Fire

by noxsidus



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Firefighter Tachibana Makoto, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Restaurant Owner Yamazki Sousuke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:42:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23289448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxsidus/pseuds/noxsidus
Summary: Sousuke was certain that soon enough he'd be suspected for arson, but he guessed it was fine if it meant he got to see the firefighter with those kind green eyes again.
Relationships: Tachibana Makoto/Yamazaki Sousuke
Comments: 10
Kudos: 51





	I Didn't Start the Fire

**Author's Note:**

> It's 3AM and I just finished writing the first chapter of this thing! I've got ideas for where this will go, but the rating and tags are likely to change as I progress (and side pairings are likely to be added, too). A bit of a warning is that this isn't beta read, so there might be a couple of grammatical errors since English isn't my first language, but I think I've managed to catch most ones.

It had been a terribly long day for Yamazaki Sousuke.

First of all he had hardly been able to sleep during night due to nightmares that he now couldn’t recall. He just remembered tossing and turning, and that he had given up around 3:30 AM. He had been about to make himself a cup of coffee when he had realized that he was out of coffee. After that he had headed directly to work, and found out that during night the cold storage had broken, leaving him with a lot of ruined food. He had been forced to close down the restaurant for the day, and the problem wasn’t expected to be fixed for another day or two. That meant several of days of lost income.

After a lot of phone calls, some angry yelling and getting rid of ruined products he had _finally_ started to make his way home.

Once he stepped out of the train there had been a faint smell of smoke in the air, and he had heard distant sirens. But he hadn’t thought much of it.

Not until he was standing outside of his apartment complex staring at the burning building.

“Oh, Yamazaki-kun!”

Sousuke turned his head to see his next-door neighbor, a sweet elderly lady who had been very kind to him ever since Sousuke had moved in a couple of years ago. She used to occasionally knock on his door to spoil him with a homemade meal or something she had baked. Every time he tried to tell her that she didn’t have to, she’d ignore him and say he reminded her of her grandson so it made her very happy to have someone to spoil once in a while.

Her grandson lived far away, and when Souske saw her get a sad look on her face as she thought of her grandson, he just couldn’t turn her kind gifts down. If it made her happy to spoil him like that, he’d accept it.

And he was relieved to see her okay.

“I’m so glad to see that you’re doing okay, Sousuke-kun! I knocked on your day on my way out, I assumed you were at work but I couldn’t help worrying!”

“Thank you, Fumiko-san,” he said and smiled, “I’m glad to see you’re safe as well. It seems most people have made it out?”

“Yes! The firefighters have checked and everyone seems to be out! You should probably talk to one of them though, so they can confirm that you’re safe as well.”

She pushed him gently towards a lone firefighter who seemed to be counting people, a thoughtful look on his face.

Sousuke sighed as he started walking towards the man while glancing at the building. Material things weren’t too bad to lose even if it certainly sucked losing some memories, but what really hurt was that his cat was left inside his apartment. Unless she had gotten out when the firefighters had checked the apartments. But be doubted so, she was quite timid and would hide from strangers unless Sousuke was there.

He forced himself to look away as he approached the firefighter. Soon enough his eyes connected with kind and concerned green eyes. For a moment he forgot what he was about to say, mesmerized by those eyes.

“Oh, are you one of the residents? Were you in the building? Are you alright?”

“Ah, yes, I’m alright,” Sousuke nodded, snapping out of his daze, “I just got back from work… so I wasn’t in the building.”

“That’s good to hear!” he said and smiled, but he looked very tired, “We’ve checked the apartments and it seems everyone are out safe and sound. There’s not anyone you are missing, right?”

“No…” Sousuke said quietly, “Overlooking the cat.”

The firefighter gasped and his eyes widened, “Oh no… which apartment is it?”

“Third floor, apartment 7,” Sousuke pulled a hand through his hair, “What a fucking day.”

The firefighter looked up at the building and then took a deep breath before looking over at Sousuke briefly.

“Hang around here, please? I’m sure someone will come to talk to you soon to inform what you need to do for eventual evacuation and such, I’ll be back as soon as possible, too!”

With that the firefighter started running, adjusting his gear.

For a moment Sousuke didn’t really understand what was going on since the building had been evacuated and they simply were working on putting out the fires. But soon enough he realized that the firefighter was running back into the burning building.

“Hey, you! No, it’s… fuck!”

It was too late to yell at the firefighter to get back, he was more or less already back in the building and Sousuke couldn’t do much more than just stand there and watch.

He just hoped the firefighter with the kind eyes wouldn’t be hurt. Sousuke didn’t trust the day since it seemed everything around him was just falling apart.

With a heavy sigh he sat down on a bench some distance away from the rest of the residents, needing some time for himself.

He hoped it all was a bad dream and that he'd wake up.

* * *

Sousuke wasn't sure how long time had passed. He had talked to a couple of persons, both neighbors and firefighters, but he hardly remembered the conversations.

It could have been 5 minutes, or it could have been an hour. He honestly couldn't tell. Time was weird when you were in some state of panic.

Once he had been left along for a while be bent forward, gripping his hair and gritting his teeth, but he was snapped out of it when he saw feet approaching him, and he heard a muffled angry growl.

His head snapped up, and there he saw the firefighter from earlier. Looking a bit sootier than before, _and_ a couple of scratches on his cheek looking very similar to claw marks. He cradled a black backpack in his arms which was Sousuke’s, and there were angry growls coming from inside the backpack.

“I’m back!” the fireman took a shaky breath as he unzipped the bag a bit and the head of an orange cat popped out.

She hissed angrily, but Sousuke had never been so relieved upon hearing his cat angry.

“I don’t think she liked being put in the bag very much, but she was being a bit difficult and I really wanted to try and keep her out of the smoke,” the firefighter chuckled, “She seems fine though! There wasn’t much smoke in your apartment, it was the staircase and lower floors that were really bad.”

Sousuke took the backpack from the firefighter with shaky hands and hugged it to his chest, gently scratching the head of his very unhappy cat, but she did calm down a bit once she was in Sousuke’s arms.

“You fucking idiot,” Sousuke said but he couldn’t help letting out a laugh, “You put your life at risk for my cat.”

“Well…” the firefighter smiled, “I just couldn’t stand here. I know some people will say that they’re just pets, but they can be family… right?”

Sousuke nodded and looked down at his cat. Right now she was his family since the rest of them were far away. She was the one to greet him after a rough day at work, or a rough day in general. It was hard being far away from his family, and from his best friend, but his cat made it bearable. Just having her in his arms again made him feel calmer and assured him the situation wasn't hopeless.

“Thank you,” Sousuke said and held out a hand to the firefighter, “I can’t thank you enough for saving her. What’s your name?”

“Tachibana Makoto,” Makoto said and took Sousuke’s hand, “And no need to thank me, I’m just glad I could reunite you with your cat!”

Once they released each other from their handshake Makoto reached out to the cat carefully, seemingly expecting her to hiss at him again or give him another scratch, but this time she sniffed his hand and only made a slightly displeased sound. But when Makoto scratched her behind her ear, she seemed quite content.

“I appreciate your hard work, Tachibana-kun,” Sousuke said and bowed his head slightly in respect, “I’m Yamazaki Sousuke, and this is Rin. I can take the apartment being ruined, but I really felt my heart drop when I realized she still was in there…”

“I didn’t notice her first when we checked, when I went back I found her hiding underneath your bed… she got a bit mad at me when I pulled her out,” Makoto pointed at his scratched face but smiled brightly, “It's absolutely worth it and I’m relieved that I got to safely reunite you with Rin! It feels good to know that we’ve got everyone out alive, humans and animals.”

“Yeah… that’s what matters in the end,” Sousuke murmured softly.

Makoto nodded in agreement, and looking into Sousuke's eyes for a while. There was that concerned gaze again, making Sousuke almost lose track of what was actually going in.

“Have you received any information or called your insurance company? You won’t be able to return to the building for now at least…”

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I heard that the owner of the apartment complex has offered evacuation apartments in another building for now, but there won’t be room for everyone. I decided to decline. There are families with children, and several elderly people who could use it, and people without no family nearby. Rin and I can deal.”

“Do you have anywhere to go?”

“I’ll just go sleep in the office of my restaurant,” Sousuke shrugged, “I've slept there before.”

“Are you sure you'll be fine?”

Sousuke nodded, “Honestly I think that’s where I’ll be the most comfortable right now. I have a couch and a futon. I can call my insurance company tomorrow and figure out something more permanent.”

Makoto nodded slowly as he listened, “Well… I’m glad you have somewhere to go. Ah, I should get back to my work now, Yamazaki-kun. I hope things turn out alright for you and Rin!”

With that he gave the cat a final little scratch, even earning him a purr. It made Makoto smile brightly again.

“Seems she has forgiven you for stuffing her into a bag,” Sousuke smirked, “But yes, I’ll leave you to it. Be careful, and thanks, again.”

“I will do my best!” Makoto said before he started jogging towards some of his colleagues, “Take care!”

Once Makoto was out of hearing range Sousuke sighed and looked down at Rin.

“Aren’t you lucky, being saved by such a handsome firefighter? And you repaid him by scratching him?”

Rin meowed and made an attempt at getting out of the backpack.

“Nuh-uh, you stay in there,” he shook his head and gently put her paw back into the backpack, “Let’s get going, Rin.”

“Mrrreow,” she whined pitifully, trying to give him a sad look.

“And that’s why you’re named after him, you crybaby,” he huffed and kissed her on the top of her head.

As he started walking back towards the train station he couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder a final time, seeing Makoto talk with a couple of other firefighters.

Sousuke wasn’t sure what it was, but he really hoped he’d get to see Makoto again.

“On a scale from 1-10, how distasteful is it to go back and ask for his number?” Sousuke asked as he scratched Rin’s head, "Or to start a fire?"

This time she growled angrily at him, clearly back to being displeased.

“Yeah, I agree, I probably shouldn’t. Thanks for your input, Rin.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to let me know what you think, and/or if you've found any error I've missed! I'd love to hear if anyone's interested in me continuing this story :)


End file.
